OUR LONDON LETTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9017, 2 April 1888, Page 6

OUR LONDON LETTER

Ifes jfp (FROM OUR !M)NDON OORIMSSPOI.TDEHT.] London, February 82. ' 1 THIS NEW: HEBRIDES. ; . V ' Thb text of th©i declaration agreed upon : A between France and England, defining the Bf^tiont : and powers of the joint AngloSYench Nalu Commission for ; the New Hebrides, and establishing regulations for fits guidance, which was signed in Pans : last month, does not add much to our know- • ledge, for it ia an almost verbatim copy of • the last despatch contained in the lately published. Blue Book. The pith of the whole document lies In the last sentence, a where it is declared that the Commission *' Shall not interfere in disputes concorning' titles to land or dispossess of their lands any persons, whether natives ov . foreigners." This prcviao Bee-ns to bear ! out Mr. Higdnson r propheoj that the Commission will be a do-nothing body, for ' how it can settle anything in a country Where nine-tenths of the disputes between . natives and foreigners arise out of questions relating to land when it is specifically forbidden to interfere with euch questions, is not easy to see. It baa been stated over -here that Rear-Admiral Heneage, Com-mander-in-Chief of the British squadron in the Pacific, is to be appointed first English President of the Commission. This, however, must clearly be a mistake, for the proper ]>erson to be chosen would be Admiral Fairfax. I may mention that Truth is busy just now in holding up the eccentricities of Rear-Admiral Heneage. It seems that this naval martinet forbids anyone to walk on the poop of the flagship while he is there, requires all men on duty to uncover their heads so long as he is on deck, orders all his officers to wear white kid gloves at divisions on Sundays, and to have their frock-coats and tunics buttoned ron all occasions. Truth thinks that the gallant Admiral would have been more at homo in a tailor's shop than in command 0' jU man-of-war. THE TARIFFS OF THE WORLD. A movement is afoot in Belgium, which Is receiving the sanction of the King of the Belgians, to establish an International Tariff Bureau, one of the main duties of / «rhich would be to issue an official publication, in four languages, of the tariffs of the world. It is believed that the dissemination of information of this kind would greatly facilitate the extension of trade. Undoubtedly this would be so, for no publication of the kind has ever been made before, and the greatest difficulty prevails in obtaining ox act information on this subject. The promoters of the movement have oommanifested with the Foreign Office, who have in their turn mentioned the matter to the Agents-General, asking them desire colonial representation, or are willing to leave their interests to be looked after by Great Britain. It is estimated that the ' expenses oi: the bureau will be about 100,000 francs, or £4000 per annum. This sum is proioosed to be raised by the division of the countries tnd colonies, who are represented k Into «nT classes, according to the trade of each: —Each colony or country shall contribute a certain sum annually, ranging from £16 a-year for the sixth class, by increments of £16 up to £96. Sir Francis Bell looks favourably upon this idea, and gives the following illustration of it? usefulness. Some time ago he ascertained that certain firms in Austria possessed machinery for extracting by a much cheaper and simpler process^than the prdinary one glucose and dextrine from gitatoes lor the manufacture of starch. e communicated 4 with the Austrian Consular representatives in this country asking for information, but was unable to get it, there being an ' obvious reluctance to supply a possible comgititor with information of this description. e then tried another and a private source, and obtained what he wanted, full details of which will be sent out to the New Zealand Government. But, he argues, if there existed an international bureau for the collection and distribution of knowledge useful for the commerce of' the world, this information would have been easily accessibleRABBITS.

Last Friday M. . Pasteur • made a series of experiments in Paris before a number oft 'scientific men, in order to test the efficacy of his method of destroying rabbits without hiinftng other'ammsls except fowls. M. Pasteur was particularly anxious that Sir Francis Bell should be present to witness these experiments, but neither Sir Francis 1 nor any other of the Agents-General were able to oblige him. - Lady Cooper, however, ~ was amongst r the spectators. Sheep, fowls, and rabbits partook of hay pod cabbage leaves which had been saturated with the microbes of hen cholera, the sheep eating the poisoned food for the tenth time. The rabbits, after eating, soon became drowsy, took to their burrows and died, it is believed, without pain. At the time of writing from Paris the fowls had not shown any signs of , ■ suffering, but it was expected that they ■would die in about three days. The sheep coolly munched their poison-ad hay, and were apparently none the worse for it. M. Pasteur has written to SL Francis Bell telling him that he was going to send out Drs. Germond and Hindis ana M. Lovi to superintend a series of experiments In Australia, and that these gentlemen ex- , pected to leave Paris to-morrow. He asked the Agent-General a series of questions ■with regard to the habits and so forth of the rabbits, the class of soil they burrowed in, the character of their burrows, s and various other particulars. Sir Francis ■ Replied to these queries in detail, and took occasion, in his letter, to point out that ; the great difficulty in the way of the adoption of M. Pas tear's plan would lie in the application of tha remedy and the development of a contagious disease over hundreds ■ of millions of acr«a. M. Pasteur was under the impression that all that the New South Wales Government could do was to call upon him to prove his remedy was efficacious for the destruction of rabbits. The Agent-General told him that, although 3he was no doubt right in thinking that that was all the New South Wales Government ■would want from him, yet he would in all probability be required to show that his remedy was efficacious, not only within enclosures, such as it had been tried in at Bheims, but also that it could be applied to jand proved to be efficacious within very ■vast- areas. In other words, it would have 1 to be demonstrated that the disease would propagate itiself, and act automatically. Then there- would also arise the other question, If the disease propagated itself naturally. and automatically, how could he prove that it would not extend itself fn an equally automatic fashion amongst other animals? To this M. Pasteur replied that he had already made experiments upon a vast number of other 1 r animals, and that as regards sheep, he had demonstrated, that after partaking of the microbes ten time in succession they had Buffered no apparent injury. From this he drew the conclusion that, even though it might ultimately turn out that repeated r • emag of food poisoned with these microbes was detrimental to the sheep, yet for all S practical purposes this would not militate % against the efficiency of his remedy, $ because the rabbits died so quickly ;.V after one administration of the poison that a district which he cleared of rabbits long before the sheep had had an opportunity of eating the poisoned food often enough to do them harm. ' At the last moment M. Pasteur was placed in a position of some doubt concerning the departure of his three assistants to Australia, owing to his having received information that the Minister of Mines in New South Wales had issued a proclamation specially prohibiting the introduction of disease amongst rabbits with a. view to their extermination, inasmuch as it was considered advisable to wait and see the result of the experiments in this direction no<v being conducted in South Australia. SirF&ncis Bell saw this notice, and forwarded it to M. Pasteur, who was considerably put out i) ' thereby, as he interpreted it to mean that bis assistants would be forbidden to make ■ -the experiments for which they were going out. He telegraphed at once to Sir Daniel Cooper to know whether this was so, but received a reassuring reply to the effect < :[ that no difficulties would be placed in the way of his assistants making their proposed 1 experiments. 1 FRENCH AFFAIRS. . / Information has been received in London • , l to the effect that the French are assembling IV: ft fresh batch of convicts for dispatch to New Caledonia. The reproaches that were ijUrected _9gainab the Government) last) sea-

flion for/their apathy in dealing with the convict question are probably the cause 01 this new display ;of activity. w But it does not follow that anything will come of it, because the French Government are anxious to take no steps which will tend to make the colonies hold aloof from the Paris Exhibition. s The French authorities appear anxiousto learn the degree of that the Australian colonies are likely to give to this Exhibition. M. Berger, the VicePresident of -the Commission, ;is now in London. He has been interviewing the Agents-General, and trying to interest them in the movement. It hats been arranged that these gentlemen should meet the Irench Ambassador to-morrow, and discuss the matter with him. A little difficulty is arising in regard to the position of Victoria. When: Sir Graham Berry was approached on the subject some time ago he was very cautious not to commit Victoria to acquiescence in the proposed scheme of representation at the Exhibition, though of course, he spoke with sympathy of the project, having to keep in view the necessity of secuf French assistance in the Melbourne Exhibition. Sir Vincent Barrington, however, who has 'i been going about the continent on behalf of the London Commission of the Melbourne Exhibition, went further than this and, in an interview with one of the French Ministers, praotically t stated that reciprocal action would be taken. - But the French Consul in Melbourne has been writing home to his authorities, stating that, so far as he can judge of the prevailing opinion,- it was by no means assured that Victoria would be represented.' This information quite upset the equanimity of Mons. Berger and his coadjutors. The former at once ' went off to see Lord Lytton, who was fortunately in a position to produce a letter from the Governor of Victoria, which rather implied the contrary. The result has been that up to the present the French are well disposed to make a good representation at Melbourne, and trust to ecuring reciprocity later on.